King Solomon and the Sparrow

For the #RamadanReadathon at Twitter, I want to highlight some story collections that people might enjoy reading, featuring free full-text books online; here are all the books I've featured so far, including a 100-word story for each one too.

So, today's book is The History of the Forty Vezirs translated from the Turkish by E. J. W. Gibb. See details below, and here is a story from that collection:



King Solomon and the Sparrow

"Where is my charming little Sparrow?" asked King Solomon. "Simurgh, go to Sparrow's house and bring him here."
Meanwhile, Sparrow was boasting to his wife. "I come and I go as I please," he chirped. "No one is the boss of me!"
At that moment Simurgh arrived. "King Solomon summons you to court, Sparrow!"
But the little bird just scoffed. "Begone, Simurgh, or I will kick you! I'll kick Solomon's palace and it will fall to the ground!"
Simurgh flew back to Solomon and reported Sparrow's words.
Solomon smiled. "Even little Sparrow likes to impress his wife with mighty words."



You can find a longer version of that story, and many other stories besides, in the online book, which is available at Internet Archive, Hathi Trust, and Google Books. Plus you can find out more about the mythical bird named Simurgh at Wikipedia. Here is a 16th-century illustration for the Shahnama showing the Simurgh




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